Endless P Summer

Bishop/Independence, CA

What an incredible week! I probably say that all the time but this time I really mean it. The High Sierras have been nothing short of magical. The scenery has been amazing, unless you’ve been here you’ll have to take my word for it because the pictures don’t do it justice.

After about 50 miles past Kennedy Meadows our friend Speed was finishing up a section of the trail and heading home. Boone and I hiked down a side trail with him and hitched into to Lone Pine for the night. Right before we got picked up we got caught in some kind of sleet/snow storm so we threw up one of our tents for cover. I wish somebody was videotaping it because we probably set a record, it was as if we had been training for that moment for months. As impressive a sight as I’m sure it was, it didn’t matter because right when we got that thing set up, a couple came by and picked us up.

Speed is a salty thru-hiking veteran and I hiked with him off and on for about 600 miles. He was our hiking mentor and not only would he keep up with kids half his age, he made all the logistics of the hike easy for us. He carries the lightest pack but always has everything he needs. One of his ultra light hiking tricks was to drop something when he knew I was right behind him, I would pick it up and return it to him whenever I caught up and for about 3 or 4 miles he would save himself an ounce and probably have a nice chuckle. Well done, Speed.

After the greatest breakfast of all time at Alabama Hills Cafe, Boone and I got a ride back up to the trail and pretty much just killed it all day to catch up to our friends. Boone is tough to miss on the trail. He pushes a furious pace while making purple women’s running shorts fashionable and wears a big yellow beard like he’s flying some kind of hiker trash flag. When we caught up to our friends they were at the base of Mt. Whitney and were planning to leave at 1am to get to the top for sunrise. Women thrive on the PCT and Prickly Pear, S+M, Tami and Schemes are no exception. This is arguably the greatest collection of badass female hikers on the trail this year. At least that I’ve come across. I could have joined them for the super early start but decided to go later, not because I was scared of the cold or anything, because I wasn’t.

At 14,505 feet Mt. Whitney is the tallest mountain in the lower 48 and is only a 17 mile round trip up a side trail off the PCT. There was no way I was passing it up. I got moving just shy of 6 am, put Chariots of Fire on repeat, turned up the volume and made Whitney my baby that day. I spent about an hour at the summit with a handful of other formidable PCTers: Boone, Nomad, Cat Lady, and Sweetums as well as a few hikers who came up from the valley. I took my time getting down and went for an invigorating swim in the icy cold Guitar Lake before pouring on 8-10 more trail miles that afternoon.

The following day we blasted up and over Forrester Pass(at 13,200 feet this is the highest point on the trail) and then took a side trail over Kearsarge Pass to get to town.  I had a great day off in Bishop then picked up my resupply package(thanks Ma) and stayed a night in Independence. It was so much fun, we ran into Malibu, BK and Queen Bee so 8 of us shared a bunkhouse. I imagine it was similar to being on the Real World.

If you’re into this, don’t hesitate to share it. Also feel free to follow me on the Gram @endlesspsummer. Or not, at the very least stay tuned for more of my story. I have a good feeling about the next few days.

  Me, Speed, Boone, Malibu

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 Posted on June 16, 2015 by

 Hiking, Pacific Crest Trail, Uncategorized

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Into the Sierra, CA

Right now I’m laying in my fartsack(sleeping bag) about 30 miles past Kennedy Meadows at a really cool sandy campsite in Death Creek Canyon. I took a day off in KM yesterday and I had planned on updating this thing there but I had just too much stuff going on, plus I didn’t have any service so I figured I had a few more days to type this up before it reached the masses.

Getting to Kennedy Meadows is a pretty big deal for this hike, signifying the end of the desert and the beginning of the High Sierras. There’s a big general store there and everybody hangs out on the porch and camps out back. I spent 2 nights in a tipi there, and it was everything I had ever dreamed of and more. Really, it was wicked cool. We’re required to carry bear canisters through the Sierras so I got mine delivered in KM and then stuffed it with as much food as I could, hopefully enough to get me through 5 days.

The week leading up to KM was fun and hot and had lots of milestones: 600 miles, 700 miles, 1000 km, 1/4 of the trail, and 2000 miles to go. These are literally stone formations that mark miles, I’m pretty sure that’s how the term milestone came to be. Maybe not. My first day out of Mojave was my toughest on the trail so far. I don’t know if it was too many cheeseburgers and milkshakes, or if I just didn’t hydrate well while I was in town but I definitely felt like I had a kink in the armor that day. Unbeknownst to me, because I was dragging, my hiking crew(Boone, Malibu, and Speed) took it easy that day and called it a little earlier than normal. So that was nice. I took some Tryactin and rebounded nicely the next day, making up for lost time. The rest of the week was great. When we got to Walker Pass, trail angels Rita and Richard took about a dozen of us into their home, fed us spaghetti and provided hot showers and a cozy floor to crash out on. Super-duper rejuvenated, I made the final 50 miles to KM in a day and a half and even went for a little swim in the Kern River.

The Sierras are said to be the crown jewel of this hike and the desert is just an obstacle to get there. Personally, I thoroughly enjoyed the  the desert and am excited about this next section. I can only imagine the High Sierras will live up to the hype.

-Endless

 

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 Posted on June 7, 2015 by

 Hiking, Pacific Crest Trail, Thru hiking

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Mojave, CA

Well I just sweet talked my way into obtaining a miniature bottle of conditioner, so that was nice. I’m into free stuff, and conditioning my hair is one luxury I’ve gone without since I started the trail. I’ve been hiking just over a month now and after some serious miles the last few days, I’m taking 2 full days off at a Motel 6 in Mojave. It’s been a good decision; this place has a pool, it’s across the street from a super cheap diner(Primo Burger) and it’s only $36 a night so with 4 to a room that’s a rather inexpensive stay. Plus, trail angel ‘Jetta Blue’ has been helping us out with rides wherever we need to go and a BBQ on for us last night. Hopefully I’ll be making a trip over to Tehachapi today to run a few errands and check it out, the town sounds pretty cool. This area is all about trains and wind turbines. In fact it’s supposedly one of the biggest wind farms in the world, you should google it. I even walked by a bunch of GE turbines, so that was cool.

Since I left the Andersons I covered some serious ground. I did a 38 mile day(my all time personal backpacking record)and followed that with a couple 25 mile days or something like that. It’s been awesome. Because of a closed section of trail we had to do about 13 miles of street walking but besides that the trail continues to amaze me. I did a nice long downhill into the desert and then walked along a really cool aqueduct. A bunch of people with motor homes and dirt bikes made us sandwiches and gave us drinks at ‘the tiki bar in hell’ before we hiked back up into some mountains and through about a million wind turbines. Because of a little extra hustle I put myself a day ahead of my loose schedule so I feel like I deserved the double zero and earned it and all that. Apparently we’ve got quite an intense stretch when we hike out of here. It’s something like 140 miles to my next stop, Kennedy Meadows, and it’ll be super hot. So I’ll be carrying 7 days of food and lots of water. This will be the heaviest my pack has been and will likely slow me down a bit. I do, however, have a brand new pair of shoes so that will counterbalance the extra challenges that I’m about to face. I did 566 miles on my first pair and probably could have got a little more out of them but wasn’t taking any chances. I went with Brooks Cascadia’s 9’s size 11 opposed to size 10’s that I wear in the real world. I’ve been pretty happy with the Cascadia 9’s and everybody that’s been wearing the Cascadia 10’s is having major sneaker problems. I apologize for the boring gear talk but I highly recommend these sneakers.

Everything else has been on the up and up. I’ve been hiking with the same group of people for awhile now and I feel like we’re moving pretty well. We are starting to come across a lot of new hikers that were a little ahead of us. Knock on wood but right now my body is feeling like a well oiled machine. I’m still eating like a champion and despite all the walking I’m keeping my weight up. I did some laundry here and I’m as clean as I’ve been since mid April. If any of you have any questions feel free to fire away and also if you’d like to follow me on the gram I just changed my name on there to  @endlesspsummer.

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 Posted on May 28, 2015 by

 Hiking, Pacific Crest Trail, Thru hiking, Uncategorized

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Casa de Luna, CA

What a great week. Right now I’m at mile 478 of the trail and taking my first full day off since Cajon Pass. I’m staying at the Anderson’s Casa de Luna with about 30 other hikers. They’ve been hosting hikers here for 15+ years and it’s pretty sweet. There’s a bunch of futons and tents outside, a huge selection of Hawaiian shirts, pancakes for breakfast and I heard some rumor about tacos for supper. It’s super relaxing here, I mean I’m not tired or anything but a day off will do me real nice.

I’ve pretty much just been cruising through the last hundred something miles. I’ve been sticking with the same handful of people for awhile now and they’ve been great. Hiking with a group makes the logistics of the hike so much easier and we are probably having the most fun out here. I still hike by myself sometimes(that’s usually when these guys start talking about gear) but I spend the bulk of my time joking around, if I’m not stuffing my face of course.

Supposedly it’s been super cold for Southern California but I’m not complaining, if it was wicked hot throughout the desert I’d just have to carry more water and that would slow me down. Everything has been going pretty smoothly. Eating plays such a major role in this and I’ve been keeping my weight up. My hygiene has been adequate, I’d say good for the trail but poor for regular life. I mean after a few days away from a town I start to get pretty funky but everyone is, so I don’t even notice it. It’s really the most noticeable when I’m around day hikers, and I’m sure it’s worse for them than me. Come to think of it, there’s a shower here so I think I’ll go wash all 2000 parts real quick.

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 Posted on May 23, 2015 by

 Hiking, Pacific Crest Trail, Thru hiking

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Wrightwood, CA

I made it into the little ski town of Wrightwood this evening after spending the day giving the trail an absolute beating with my feet. I haven’t really checked this place out yet, just stuffed my face real quick and found a place to throw my tent down.

The last few days have been great. After my day off in Big Bear I hiked about 20 miles through forest and camped at some sweet beach next to a little river. The next day I got up early, had an invigorating early morning swim in an icy river and later on made it to Deep Creek Hot Springs. This place was the real deal, I guess nudists from far and wide go to hang out there. Literally. Supposedly Charlie Manson used to live in the woods there or something. There was all kinds of talk about this big huge storm coming up on us and I had a deadline to pick up a resupply package at the PO so I had to put in some big miles. When I left the hot springs I just walked all day and into the night, it was awesome. Alongside this huge old aqueduct system, next to a gigantic dam, saw a rattler, over this ridge next to a wicked big desert into the sunset and right by Silverwood Lake. It was my highest mileage day of the trip and put me in really good position to get away from this storm. The next morning I hiked for awhile and I was about 3 miles from civilization when some fierce winds and rain finally caught up to me. I switched on my turbo boosters and jogged to a McDonalds on I-15. Besides a McFlurry I hadn’t eaten there in years but I was so hungry. I was whacking back double cheeseburgers with reckless abandon. It was just gross, but awesome at the same time. Trail Angel Innuendo was kind enough to bring me my package from Wrightwood so I took a day off in El Cajon and a bunch of us got cheap rooms at a Best Western while the mountains got hit with a big time storm. It was great, this place had a jacuzzi a pool and a waffle maker. Some of us even took a field trip to Rancho Cucamungo for sushi. Got out early today and it was incredible, started out hot humid and foggy and finally got up to about 8000 feet and walked through areas with about foot of snow. Had some amazing views, travelled through a ski mountain, a trail angel Hopscotch hooked us up with tons of food and drinks and when I finally got to the road I got a ride into town almost immediately. It may have been one of the best hiking days yet.

My good fortunes are continuing. Luck has been on my side. I’m sleeping good, I get a shower once in awhile, my appetite has been indestructible. I’ve been eating food at an incredible rate. The people have been really cool; the hikers, the trail Angels the people in towns. I mean there’s a few whackos here and there but for the most part everyone’s been great.  I have a detour around an old burn area coming up and then I think I’m going back through the desert. I’ll keep you posted. Feel free to share this if you like what you read, or if you got any questions fire away.

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 Posted on May 17, 2015 by

 Hiking, Pacific Crest Trail, Thru hiking, Uncategorized

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Big Bear Lake, CA

Well first of all today’s date, 5/11/15 is another palindrome, so that’s cool. Right now I’m taking a day off from hiking, a ‘zero’ in Big Bear Lake, CA adjacent to Big Bear City. It’s a pretty good sized ski town in southern California at about 6700 feet(higher elevation than anything in New England). I’m sure it’s much busier during the ski season but there is still a lot going on and it is the biggest town I’ve been in since San Diego.

Getting here was of course a bit of an adventure. I left Ziggy and the Bear’s around 9 am Friday morning after it absolutely poured the night before and the winds were borderline obnoxious. Luckily I slept under some benches and had pretty good cover and didn’t get all that wet. There were all kinds of rumors Friday of more storms but instead of sticking around there another night I decided to press on. I put in some big miles that day and it was incredible, hiked through the canyons in the San Gorgonio Wilderness and through the Whitewater Preserve. All day I had some big ominous clouds in the distance but I outran them. The clouds provided an awesome backdrop to the landscape and it was an intense and rewarding day of hiking. There’s been all kinds of rumors of what’s to come and I guess I can’t believe everything I hear, I’m glad I went out when I did. The next couple of days were also scenic but sunnier and with cooler temperatures than I’ve been used to due to the elevation. I walked through some snow and as I later learned, the hikers in front of me had some cold snowy nights, and the hikers behind me got poured on. Hopefully my luck never runs out. I have had some cooler nights lately and have been setting my tent up just to stay a little warmer. It also gives the rattlesnakes less of a chance to slither into my sleeping bag to cuddle. One notable thing from the other day were these animal cages I passed in the middle of nowhere that had these big old Grizzly Bears in them, I guess they use them in the movies or something. It really wasn’t all that cool.

I’ve been hiking and camping with a lot of different, interesting, cool people and been trying to learn as much as I can from them. I’m hoping to hike with an arborist for awhile so I can start identifying all the trees and stuff. Or maybe somebody who will only talk to me in Spanish or something. My body has been holding up pretty well. I’ve been resting when I’m tired and I just kill it when I’m feeling like a machine. I’ve been eating a ton and last night I even ate myself into a free meal. A bunch of us went out to this Mexican Restaurant and myself and another dude went for the burrito challenge. It was an 18 inch tortilla stuffed with all kinds of good burrito accoutrement, weighing in at 7 lbs. it cost $16 dollars but if you clean the plate it’s on the house. Brett aka the ‘Burrito Whisperer’ devoured his in less than 10 minutes. I finished mine in a more pedestrian time of 15-20 minutes but I was pretty proud of myself. I felt like it really wasn’t a big deal, even got ice cream sandwiches afterwards. The waitress however said she’s been working there for a year and only saw one other person do it. She probably tells everybody that though. Apparently she didn’t know I’d been training for that moment at Tacos Lupita for years. Stayed last night and planning to stay again tonight at the Big Bear Hostel and it was a little tough sleeping on a mattress for the first time in weeks but I’ll just have to make the proper adjustments. Hiking out in the AM…..

-Endless

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 Posted on May 11, 2015 by

 Hiking, Pacific Crest Trail, Thru hiking

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Ziggy and the Bear’s, CA

I’m currently just chilling out in some lawn furniture in Whitewater, CA nice and fresh from a luke warm shower and I can’t remember ever feeling so good. Ziggy and the Bear are a couple of trail Angels who have been hosting hikers in their yard for years and the set up is really sweet. Right now there’s about 30 of us pounding Little Caesar’s.

The last week of my life has gone quite well. I feel like I’m starting to settle into the hike and it’s beginning to feel real. My sleeping has improved and so has my appetite. With any luck I crash out between 9-10 and unless I get woken up earlier by gale force winds, I try to get up around 4-4:30 then crush a whole bunch of miles and watch the sun come up and stuff. In the afternoons I tend to slow down a little so I can stop and shoot the breeze with everybody or take a little siesta. When it comes to eating I’ve become something of a machine. I’ve been eating everything I can and stuffing my face every chance I get. The other night in Idyllwild I even set my own personal pizza eating record(7 slices of real 2-topping pizza, not Monte’s).

This week has come with with some other unexpected challenges and decisions I need to make on how I want to go about this hike. Part of the trail was closed for forest regrowth and the alternate route added about 9 miles, a lot of it a road walk. It was rumored to be a total drag but instead of hitching to the next trailhead I’m glad I walked it, it was actually quite scenic and enjoyable. Another alternate gave hikers the option of climbing San Jacinto Peak (10,834 feet and the J sounds like an H) and although adding a couple miles and quite challenging, especially the descent, it was very worth it. A few other memorable events from this week were Trail Angel Mike’s desert oasis at mile 127, taking my first ‘zero'(thru-hiker jargon for not hiking any trail miles in a day) in beautiful Idyllwild, CA, and surviving some intense winds while camping last night near a ridge on the North Face of San Jacinto. As the pictures show the often changing landscapes of the desert and the mountains has been just a treat for the eyes. I also am learning to use an Instagram account(right now you can search for me as Carmody413 but that will likely change) and have taken on a moniker. At first I thought it was a little hokey to go by a trail name, but that was until somebody gave me a good one. Until next time…

-Endless P. Summer

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 Posted on May 7, 2015 by

 Hiking, Pacific Crest Trail, Thru hiking

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Warner Springs, CA

I’m 109 miles and 6 days in and so far the hike and experience has been just delightful. I feel like I went into the hike in pretty good shape so cranking out the miles hasn’t been an issue for me. I give my feet pretty good love and haven’t got any blisters. I used my mothers trick the first few days putting Vaseline on them before my socks and ive been hanging my socks everytime I stop. I’m learning that the more efficient you are with food, water, and gear you can have a much lighter pack and the lighter your pack the easier the miles. I sent my stove home along with some clothes and trying to get more done with less. Instead of cooking my dehydrated food I’ve been putting it in an empty peanut butter container adding water and it’s ready at my next meal, it’s pretty good and I’ve been trying to eat as much as I can. I still have a tent but haven’t been using it, the stars are way too cool out here so I just throw down my strip of tyvek, sleeping pad and bag aka cowboy camping.

The scenery in the desert was totally unexpected and has been just the tops! I pictured the desert to be more like sand dunes everywhere but it’s much more mountainous and awesome. I’ve seen only one rattler but some kind of racer and a couple other ones just posing out on the trail, buku lizards, a few horned toads,and two coyotes(but one might have been a wolf and the other might have been a German Shepard).

I’ve hiked and camped with lots of fun and interesting people out here and been learning plenty from them. The Trail Angels have been so great and the timing has been wicked clutch. Mike and Nancy at Scissors crossing and Jan and Jim who picked me up, fed me, and drove me to the trail as well as stocked the water cache at 3rd gate. On the trail most people are given a trail name for one reason or another and a few have been sent my way. I’m trying one on now and I’ll let you know if I decide to keep it. It’s kinda serious business out here so it’s gotta fit just right.

Sometimes I just can’t believe my luck!!

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 Posted on May 2, 2015 by

 Hiking, Pacific Crest Trail, Thru hiking

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Endless P Summer

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